Drugs, Does an Answer Exist?

Legalize marijuana? Fire-bomb Columbia and other drug exporting countries on a regular basis? Seize the possessions of every drug dealer arrested, and force them and their families into poverty? Execute drug dealers and drug manufacturers who sell/manufacture drugs over a certain limit? Offer every drug offender six months of mandatory rehab after the first offense en lieu of prison?

Are any of these solutions?

My solution would be to legalize marijuana for a test period of one year. Tax marijuana 100% and allow only state licensed agents to grow, ship and distribute marijuana. Anyone caught selling without a license would get 15 years in prison. Distribution is 20 years in prison and growing would be a life sentence. They would be charged with not only drug offenses, but tax evasion as well.

It would betreated like alcohol, only people 21 and over could obtain it. If a minor is caught with it, the minor will get 6 months in prison mimimum, and the person who gave the minor the drug would get 1 year in prison, minimum.

The revenue from the marijuana tax would go towards rebuilding California’s infrastructure for the first two years, would go towards schools in years three through five and a third of the revenue from years one through five would go towards building light rail systems in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Irvine. If the program lasts only the one year (it would be put to a popular state vote as to whether or not to continue it) the revenue will all be spent on repairing highways, bridges and other state run infrastructures.

Sorry

Got really busy from October through today.  Still busy, but trying to do at least one new post a week as a new years resolution type thing.

Iraq, Iran, New York and Colorado

I recently had a long discussion with a friend of mine who is from Iran.  She grew up there and lived through the nightmare of being bombed by Iraq during the war in the 1980’s.  She has an amazing insight into the current state of affairs in the Middle East, including the United States invasion into Iraq.  However, she and I disagreed quite strongly on this subject. 

 

She currently lives in Colorado and performs a variety of tasks for civic organizations.  I received this e-mail from her a week or so ago:

 

Dear Friends,

 

I am asking you to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do everything in your power to get people to VOTE. If this country ends up being run by more CRIMINALS, it is a DAMN SHAME that we didn’t do everything in our power to stop that from happening. So PLEASE practice the very right that many people gave their lives for, so that we may VOTE today!

 

I am a full time staff at PeaceJam and a student but I am also sitting outside of K-Mart or going door to door to get people registered after work. You would be surprised to see how many people, how many AMERICANS are not even registered to VOTE! I am not trying to suggest a party. I am just asking YOU to help this country go back to what it once was, a country of active citizens!

 

If you live in Colorado please contact me and i will tell you how we can get more people registered in the next six weeks before the elections.

 

Many thanks,

Pani

 

The word that caught me here was “criminal” which is why I highlighted it.  The following is the e-mail conversation which ensued.

 

Joe

criminals?

 

Pani

Is taking hundreds of thousands of lives not criminal?

 

Joe

I’m no longer a Republican, but I don’t think we want to have this discussion.  Especially considering who the US got rid of.

 

Pani

Shouldn’t you be saying I instead of We? Because i wouldn’t mind a discussion. Even then you can’t say that you don’t want to have this discussion but drop in a comment like that! lol which only calls for a discussion. 

 

Joe

Well, our politics are quite different, but to call my president a criminal is frustrating Pani. 

 

Pani

And to kill/displace thousands of innocent people is beyond frustrating my friend. It is simply a war crime, and very devastating!

 

Joe

One of the nations we attacked attacked us, the other ignored the UN resolutions, fought with20its neighbors (including your country) and was dangerous to world peace.  The20U.S.’s biggest fault is also its biggest asset, it’s the only nation on earth willing to confront dictators.  And while I think this thing should have been pursued along a different route, how many crying people in dungeons did Saddam put to death?  How many more innocent Iraqi’s were going to due under him?  Who would have brought him to justice Pani?  Iran?  The current leader of Iran is a psychopath and a region full of instability, which puts lawyers in jail, women to death and Christians in prison can’t start to shout “war crimes” because there is so much blood on its own hands.

 

Pani

It is impossible to think that Saddam was a danger to world peace and the U.S. is not right now! The U.S. ignores UN resolutions, International Courts, NPT…and many others. The issue is that the U.S. can’t stand it when someone else does any of those things and finds it it’s business to step foot where ever it wishes at whatever cost!

 

Yes, Saddam attacked my country but i along with the rest of the nation were taught to LOVE Iraqis, even when they were dropping bombs on our head! Because i had incredible parents who put HUMANITY first and foremost in everything! And today, Iranians have the decency to still not just like, but LOVE Americans! When they see an American on the street in Iran they bring them home and cook them meals and show them the Persian culture and are most hospitable. They still have the decency to separate the people and the government of America unlike the average American here who thinks that all Muslims, all Middle Easterns are evil because their president told them so!

 

As for the Iranian president, he is just a mirror image of Mr. Bush. A hard line religious politician, with the difference being that Iranian people do not believe everything he says and think for themselves instead. They at least know the map of the world, and can decide for themselves what is going on with world politics, not what they ar e being told by FOX! They live in a country who’s government burns America n flags and has “Death To America” slogans all over but you wouldn’t even know that when you meet a Persian in Iran because of how hospitable they are to an American!

 

As fo r Saddam, why is it that when the U.S. no longer wanted him, he needed to be brought to justice? Why didn’t the U.S. have a problem funding him with the very unjust war you mentioned against my country. Was it not the very Donald Rumsfeld who thought Saddam needs to be brought to Justice under the Bush administration, who visited Saddam many times during the Senior Bush Administration to provide him with weapons and funds for the war against Iran, knowing Saddam was using mustard gas against Iranians! Who provided Saddam with intelligence and satellite systems that could show him where our houses and schools were? I spend the first eight years of my life in black outs because with the wonderful technology America had provided Saddam, he was successfully bombing all our schools and hospitals! Why did the U.S. not have a problem with him being unjust then? But all of a sudden he had to be brought to justice years later when he was of no good use to the U.S. anymore!

 

I spent the first eight years of my life in the most horrible state a child can have under war, but never came out of it hating Iraq, or America! My parents never allowed me to think that just because someone was awful to me i had the right to be awful to them! I don’t know about your religious beliefs right now, but we didn’t have to be Christians to be that way! We just were human, and if you are human you will know that there is NO EXCUSE for taking a life, NO MATTER WHAT.

 

Sometimes20i think anti-abortion people are so amusing to watch and listen to. They fight for the life of an unborn fetus so that they can put it under death penalty or drop a bomb on its head years later! Such a=2 0paradox.

 

And by the way Joe, discussion is the only way to take down the ideology walls that are causing for people to fight, and shed blood for centuries now. So please know that i am always open and would like to have discussions because i think it’s important for you to hear my views and experiences just as it is for me to hear yours!

 

Joe

First off, way too many exclamation points, but that’s a grammar issue, not really on our topic.

 

Secondly, let me say that I am no fan of Rumsfeld or Cheney, and my distaste for George W. Bush has grown.  That being said, you paint a picture of Americans being sheep, and yet the compassionate people of Iran have allowed three decades of religious dictators to run their nation.  I am overwhelmed with how little you think of the people who welcomed you with open arms when your own country forced you to leave.  I don’t defend Fox News or the average voter, but you are painting a very black and white picture of Iran being a place of loving people, and history just isn’t on your side on that one.  I am in no way saying20your family is evil, or that most Iranians are evil, rather that the idea of every Iranian spends their day waiting for me with a bowl of soup to taste isn’t Kosher.

 

I am well aware that for about fifty years the CIA has run some pretty despicable programs in my country and many other countries.  It’s shameful that my government has supported dictators that it then had to remove.  What people usually forget however was the alternative America was given at the time.  For example, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is trying to become an elected king.  He’s ruining his own nation (as I’ve heard from Venezuelans, not Americans) and is ready to provoke a war in his country, his continent and his hemisphere that will lead to disaster.  Were this the 1950’s, America probably would have backed some other leader who was slightly less ominous.  In Iraq/Iran, the choice between Saddam and the Iatola (sic?) wasn’t a great choice at all, and considering the U.S. interests in the region, a choice had to be made.

 

One may argue “what right does the U.S. have to back any leader, or overthrow any leader, in a given country.”  I understand that argument, but some of those same people bitch when the U.S. doesn’t get involved in Rwanda, Sudan, Myanmar and other nations where atrocities are being carried out.  I have rejected the neo-conservative notion that America can cure the world of evil, but when atomic weapons and weapon capabilities are being sold to Iran , Syria and other unstable/aggressive governments, what is the United States supposed to do?  Bill Clinton could have ended Osama’s life and saved thousands of Americans, yet had he killed him, the rest of the world might have said “Clinton killed a freedom fighter.”    This is the world we live in, America just can’t win.

 

As far as the U.N., the United States is the only nation on earth with enough guts and moral authority to get in another nation’s way when it oversteps its bounds.  Question may be “who are we to be that force on earth?”  Well, if it has to be someone, pick a better nation?  Canada?  China?  France?  Iran?  Russia?  And if you argue that no nation should have that power, you’re accepting that Sudans and Rwandas and Iraqs and other nations with murderous dictators should be allowed to murder their own people without provocation.

 

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, I don’t pretend that Americans are right and everyone else is wrong and I don’t pretend that what is going on in Iraq is 100% right.  I will say this, those who think Iraq was 100% the right move are just not paying attention, and those who think Iraq was 100% the wrong move are naive.

 

Pani

Yes, way too many grammar and spelling mistakes but that is not what matters in this case at least. lol Since there are other important issues at hand.

 

This is why discussion is great because now i see we have more in common than differences. I have a great quote here on my desk from Marjaneh Satrapi “The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. An the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.” Then i added my own to it saying “Those committing crimes in my government wear turbans and those committing crimes in your government wear ties, and on the inside they both lack human empathy”.

 

I said average American. Joe, people in LA welcomed me with open arms. Have you tried being a Middle Eastern woman in any other state other than CA and NY? Things are a bit different my friend. I mean even poor Corrine at one point said “I would much rather we visit you, i just worry if you came to visit us here, people would stare at you or treat you poorly”. And yes, i appreciate the amazing Americans who take the time to educate themselves and find out things for themselves by making friends with people like me and asking us what Islam is, or what the people in the middle east are really like. I respect and admire these Americans. For instance Zoriah’s family or my mother’s husband…

 

I also don’t think that one nation should have the authority that you speak of. It needs to be a committee of many nations representing the combination of the people in this world, working toward a common goal that is the well being of every human being on this earth. It is only through this that each individual and nation can be responsible for their fair share of hard work without one super power taking all the glory or blames for most things that take place in the world.

 

I guess you would only ha ve to go to Iran and experience it for yourself. But they not only have a bowl of soup ready for you but don’t eat their own food and put it in front of you. Even the poorest families do this. It is a cultural thing, a guest is highly respected in that culture because it is even said in Islam that God rewards those who welcome guests in to their homes with open arms. So they don’t just have that toward Americans they are generally a hospitable nation. It was the first nation that gave rights to the Jews and is still one of the biggest melting pots of different ethnicities, religions and cultures. Bahais, Zorastrians, Jews, Muslims, Christians… have all been living there for centuries. There is no clash between the people; we have all lived in friendship with each other for hundreds of years. This is only a clash created by governments and war profiteers!

 

Anyway, i enjoyed our talk. I remember you said you were working on a book. What’s it about? How is it coming along?

 

What do you guys think?

Church, Government, Banks and the Poor

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who is African American, works at a very large bank in Los Angeles and who has a unique perspective on economics in this nation.

Editor
How has the church educated African Americans in terms of finance and personal finance? Has this in any way affected an average African American’s view of banks and the global banking system?

Friend
Sadly, many Af-Am church goers seem to accept economic conditions without questioning them too deeply. In many parts of the inner city, “hyphenated folks” have been experiencing a decades long recession beginning with America’s broad-scale de-industrialization shortly after the Civil Rights era. We’re on the front lines of any downturn. There remains a stubborn element of economic cynicism.
Many churches, (largely mega churches due to the fading prosperity movement), have offered education, seminars, and counseling on home purchasing, credit, and personal finance. The influence has been beneficial for many, if not instrumental in awareness and activity. Global finance, banking policy, and Wall Street remain afar from most Americans; this I say in my experience as investment consultant, working with everyone under the sun.

The black underclass and many members of the lower class distrust banks because of fees, check deposit availability, and collateralized lending. Sadly, check cashing offices outnumber banks in the ‘hood.

Editor
In your opinion, is the Federal and or State government doing anything to assist African Americans in developing their financial IQ? And is the distrust of banks justified?

Are you sure it is a matter of race and not of class? In Indiana, a very “white” state, check cashing institutions are as numerous as Peyton Manning jerseys. To me, it’s a matter of the sad state of the lower class’ economic IQ.

Friend
The federal and/or state governments aren’t taking any measure to promote financial literacy for ANYONE. The only individuals that possess any savvy are the ones have interest ($$$) or enough exposure to care. Rather than teaching Home-Economics, our educational system should teach personal finance……AF-Am’s trust of just about anything is justified. LOL!

Banks kept a share of unfair and unequal lending policies in practice for years; redlining, predatory lending. Even currently Af-Am’s check are more likely to be placed on hold when depositing! When Af-Am’s come into a branch for service, everyone dodges them!!!

Class is largely the issue. However, class also has a high correlation to race. Whites in the Midwest felt the ill effects of deindustrialization just as blacks did. Many working class constituents feel they do not possess enough money to keep in a bank or distrust their personal responsibility in keeping their account in positive standing. Honestly, I have co-workers that are reading personal finance books like the Holy Scriptures and inside I’m thinking: “Why??? Most of the advice given is for individuals far above their income level.” It ’s like playing monopoly without owning anything on the board.

Editor
At the same time though, poor blacks and whites (and even a fair amount of the middle class) have financial IQ’s so low that every time credit is thrown their way they jump at it. How many Americans understand that credit actually means debt? It’s the same as people who load up on junk food at McDonalds, but then hit the gym for 35 minutes (like me). While it’s sad they can’t stop eating the garbage, the workouts are probably what’s keeping their hearts from exploding. People might be missing the point with their personal finance worship, but I’d rather that effort be made than the wave of bankruptcies that have occurred in the last two decades.

Friend
Sadly Capitalism, as it has been conducted, has disenfranchised the American Worker, leaving inflation to eat away at wealth, and credit as the financial Anti-Savior. Credit is a crutch; it has been one that Americans have been leaning on right and left. What we just went through….scratch that….what we’re going through right now is the epitome of financial indiscretion. America became house flippers and turned dwelling places into commodities. 300% increases in some areas in terms of price……IN FIVE YEARS!!!! Can you really expect that to continue??? Now we’re all back-broken and cash strapped. The funny thing is somebody got paid by selling. Was it you? It definitely wasn’t me.

Editor
Then what’s the solution? How does America, specifically the working and lower classes, go from an overwhelming debt and no “real” upward mobility to a place of freedom?

Friend
They’ll need some support from our economic policy. We need a place for people to work; we can’t expect everyone to obtain a graduate degree. We need a small to mid-scale return to the manufacturing sector and the trades. Our Midwest can be revitalized with some “protectionism”. We need small businesses to be supported. We need families to remain intact. Discipline, discipline, discipline. e all need to reject the temporary thrill of spending money and make a serious commitment to paying off habitual debt. ( i.e. credit cards, medical bills, etc.) Americans need to relearn to cook and not spend $30/day eating out.

Editor
Who should take the lead here though? Governments trip all over themselves, and churches tend to be very hot and cold in leading anything economic. Conservatives will complain about protectionism and about government intervention in the economy. Democrats, specifically the liberal side, will complain about too much church intervention into the economy, especially if it’s aided by the government. I’m thinking churches can incorporation personal finance classes (the basics) to their members through government provided speakers (for free). The government could possibly create a program for American factory workers/supervisors, heading to Mexico, China, and other third world nations to act as ambassadors and consultants on safety and how the factory should run. On factory and manufacturing work though, I don’t know if we can seriously revive that industry without serious tariffs, which would relive the mistakes made after black Friday in 1929.

Friend
Its a all-hands-on-deck effort. It can’t be unbalanced. Conservatives are ill and democrats are sick……everyone wants results, but everyone wants their philosophy to provide the solution.

We need the church to preach the word:
“A good man showeth favor and lendeth; he will guide his affairs with discretion” “If thou lend money to any of My people who are poor among thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. “Ye shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the LORD your God.”

We need the government to be the elected officials of the people and not corporations and industries. I feel that we can tilt the scale a bit to protect our workforce. One, by giving tax incentives to companies that employ Americans; two, by suspending some tax breaks for companies that outsource, or produce multinationally.

We, as individuals need to watch less T.V. and stop falling prey to the onslaught of advertisements and materialism that it projects. Credit shouldn’t be leverage, it should be a lifeline.

Good stuff, any thoughts from the readers?

Offense, Boycotts, Retards and Blackface

A new film is coming out this weekend “Tropic Thunder.”  In this film, Robert Downey, Jr. (“Iron Man,” “Weird Science”) plays an actor who is white, but has surgery to turn himself black.  In essence, he’s playing the movie “blackface.”  Now, you would think the first group of offended individuals would be African Americans groups, such as the NAACP.  However, The Special Olympics and other advocates for the mentally disabled have chosen to protest and boycott the film (click here) because one character uses the word “retard” too much for their liking.

There was a time when I thought that people should be offended, that anyone who claimed offense at an off-color joke or mildly racist remark was just a liberal idiot who needed to get a thicker skin.  I no longer subscribe to that particular attitude, but the Bible is pretty clear when it comes to offense.  In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul harshly rebukes the church at Corinth for taking their offenses against one-another to the public courts.  He first suggests that the church might need its own court system, but then goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 6:7

“Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?”

I’m not sure exactly how this ties in, other than to say that Christians can be as reactionary as non-Christians when it comes to lawsuits, boycotts and protests.  In working for attorneys as I have the last half-decade (half-decade sounds longer than 5 years, so I used the longer sounding term) I’ve seen all manner of offense taken to an extreme.  From major Fortune 500 corporations to a mother and daughter fighting over a will.  As Believers, we get offended at each other and at the world, when Paul’s advice is basically to take it.  Paul’s advice to us is to get hurt, be taken advantage of, be made to look stupid and to allow others to hurt us.  All sorts of things might jump in our flesh, as individuals, spouses, parents, children and business people, but our faith, the Christian faith, is based upon a man who let himself be murdered by friends and strangers alike.  As business people who are Believers, is this our perspective?

I applaud the NAACP for not claiming that Robert Downey, Jr., the director and screenwriters are all racists.  I think the groups looking to “protect” those who have down syndrome and other mental disabilities are simply grabbing onto a movie that will be popular so they can raise more money for their cause.  However, most of all, I think this should teach Believers of all denominations and races that Christ’s first reaction when returning from the dead was to seek out the disciples who abandoned him so that there could be reconciliation.  Lawsuits may not really have a place in God’s Kingdom.

Today’s Link

Learn about America’s historic relationship with debt (click here).

Racial Violence and The Church

This CNN article (click here) doesn’t really focus on the church’s role in what happened, but that the church flew the man’s body back to his mother (internationally no less) is a sign I think of the heart of that congregation.  The only solution I see to this little town’s problem is for the churches in the area to come together and confront the racism in their respective congregations, whether it’s whites against Mexicans or Mexicans against whites.

News and Comments

So, the city of Los Angeles feels morally secure enough in a decision to block new fast food restaurants from opening locations in central Los Angeles? (click here)

Here’s a quote:

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has pushed for a moratorium for six years, said the initiative would give the city time to craft measures to lure sit-down restaurants serving healthier food to a part of the city that desperately wants more of them.“I believe this is a victory for the people of South and southeast Los Angeles, for them to have greater food options,” she said.

Will this have any actual result?  It seems like a hollow action for the following reason:

• There are hundreds of fast-food chains in that area already, and there is no push to remove those establishments.
• There really is no demand for these kinds of foods, and rather than undertaking the difficult task of focusing on demand, they take the easier road in dealing with supply (not unlike drugs).
• If this city council is taken to court by the big fast-food chains, they’re going to lose and cost the city millions in legal fees as a result.

This is an example of why Christianity can effect social change in a long term way, a way that government never can.  Governments, no matter how well intentioned, cannot deal with issues of the heart.  From Stalin to King Henry, no politician or ruler can change behaviour from the inside out, so they all attempt to do so from the outside in.  Forget attempting education and school programs, forget zoning schools so that no fast-food operations can open up shop within a mile of a school.  Instead, pass an ordinance that will fail on a million fronts, but look good to voters for a few weeks or so.

Sam Zell is murdering the LA Times (click here) and the city of Los Angeles.  And you don’t even know who he is, do you?  So far, in the last two months, 150+ journalists have been laid off at the Times, while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lies about where the trash tax was going and city officials are caught in various campaign funding and ethics probes.  But you still don’t care, do you?

News Updates

Sen. Ted Stevens (R – Alaska) is probably going to spend some time in jail (click here)

Christians and Gays (click here)

White people are leaving South Africa very quickly (click here)

Praying for Gas?

A group (click here) is gathering at a gas station in their community to thank God for lower gas prices.  While incorporating prayer and faith into every aspect of life is important, I think this comes off as mildly hokey and spiritually unproductive.  The question then is, what should we be praying for at this time?  Here are some ideas:

• Prayers of repentance for over-consumption over the last century
• Prayers of blessing and mercy for Muslim nations
• For God’s wisdom and knowledge on how to power our economy with a substance other than oil
• For God’s continued intervention in our economy, even if it hurts us in the short term